Well, I can now say I’ve skied the Australian Alps, although I don’t know how much of an accomplishment that really is. ;) How strange it was to not only be skiing in Australia, but to be skiing amongst Gum Trees and in the sun that was so hot I was sweating before I even got to the lift! An experience it was though, as weird as it was. It started on Friday afternoon where we all packed up early at the office to hit the road for our 6-hour long drive to get to the snow! Oh, I forgot to mention that this trip was courtesy of my employer, which was an extra bonus for me!!!! How lucky am I???? Anyway… so after being forced to listen to 80’s dance music the ENTIRE way… and of course, “I come from a land down under”… we made it to Thredbo ski village with enough time to grab some pizzas for dinner and chill by the big screen TV and fireplace in our lodge. Good times.
We hit the slopes early Saturday morning at which point my boss, who for weeks was saying that he was going to, “kick my ass” on the mountain, changed his tune a little. I believe out of fear that maybe he wasn’t as good as he thought he was. We went straight to the top of Thredbo, which is 2037 meters above sea level. Not bad compared to Whistler/Blackcomb which is 2284. Difference is… it takes all of 2 minutes to ski down Thredbo, whereas it takes ½ hour to ski down Whistler (not including breaks!). Reason being the base in Thredbo is much higher than at Whistler due to the snow only covering the top of the mountain. Even the village had little to no snow, and the river was running full swing, again, all making it very hard to believe that we could actually ski there.
The day turned out to be a lot of fun. Aside from one really bad icy run, no powder, and the slushy snow at the bottom of the slopes, the conditions actually weren’t that bad… for Australian standards of course. Most of us were completely nackered by the end of the day… yes, I said nackered! We got back to the lodge where we were able to relax a bit before enjoying a wonderful lamb and chicken home cooked meal by our boss! Were we ever spoiled… it was fabulous! That evening was spent accompanied by a few drinks and a lot of laughs before hitting the sack.
Sunday morning we took our time getting up and packing up and went for a nice breakfast in the village. Then we began our long trek back to Sydney with a stop in Canberra, Australia’s national capital. Funny story how Canberra became the capital of the country: apparently it was selected as a compromise between rival cities Sydney and Melbourne because they couldn’t just pick one or the other, so they built an entirely new city right in between the two in 1908. Seems a bit silly to me, but whatever. The city itself almost seemed a little too perfect… everything placed exactly where it should be, but I guess that’s what you get with a purpose-built planned city. We stopped at the markets for lunch and then drove up to Mount Ainslie for some look-out photos, which looked right across to the Parliament House.
At this point I actually swapped vehicles as my friend Jorge and his friends also happened to be in Canberra, so I joined up with them and rode the rest of the way back to Sydney with them. No more 80’s dance music… now it was Mexican tunes all the way home!
All in all it was a great weekend. I’m glad I actually got to see for my own eyes what the “Australian Alps” were all about, and it was great to hang out with my co-workers. I’ve truly been blessed to end up working with them and have already told them they all have to come to Vancouver at some point to see what real skiing is all about! Although I’m charging anyone who plans on coming during the Vancouver Winter Olympics in 2010! Seriously!
We hit the slopes early Saturday morning at which point my boss, who for weeks was saying that he was going to, “kick my ass” on the mountain, changed his tune a little. I believe out of fear that maybe he wasn’t as good as he thought he was. We went straight to the top of Thredbo, which is 2037 meters above sea level. Not bad compared to Whistler/Blackcomb which is 2284. Difference is… it takes all of 2 minutes to ski down Thredbo, whereas it takes ½ hour to ski down Whistler (not including breaks!). Reason being the base in Thredbo is much higher than at Whistler due to the snow only covering the top of the mountain. Even the village had little to no snow, and the river was running full swing, again, all making it very hard to believe that we could actually ski there.
The day turned out to be a lot of fun. Aside from one really bad icy run, no powder, and the slushy snow at the bottom of the slopes, the conditions actually weren’t that bad… for Australian standards of course. Most of us were completely nackered by the end of the day… yes, I said nackered! We got back to the lodge where we were able to relax a bit before enjoying a wonderful lamb and chicken home cooked meal by our boss! Were we ever spoiled… it was fabulous! That evening was spent accompanied by a few drinks and a lot of laughs before hitting the sack.
Sunday morning we took our time getting up and packing up and went for a nice breakfast in the village. Then we began our long trek back to Sydney with a stop in Canberra, Australia’s national capital. Funny story how Canberra became the capital of the country: apparently it was selected as a compromise between rival cities Sydney and Melbourne because they couldn’t just pick one or the other, so they built an entirely new city right in between the two in 1908. Seems a bit silly to me, but whatever. The city itself almost seemed a little too perfect… everything placed exactly where it should be, but I guess that’s what you get with a purpose-built planned city. We stopped at the markets for lunch and then drove up to Mount Ainslie for some look-out photos, which looked right across to the Parliament House.
At this point I actually swapped vehicles as my friend Jorge and his friends also happened to be in Canberra, so I joined up with them and rode the rest of the way back to Sydney with them. No more 80’s dance music… now it was Mexican tunes all the way home!
All in all it was a great weekend. I’m glad I actually got to see for my own eyes what the “Australian Alps” were all about, and it was great to hang out with my co-workers. I’ve truly been blessed to end up working with them and have already told them they all have to come to Vancouver at some point to see what real skiing is all about! Although I’m charging anyone who plans on coming during the Vancouver Winter Olympics in 2010! Seriously!
